After early lead, Campbell makes late stand, tops Liberty

Liberty vs Campbell

Gallery

The Red Devils’ defense stuffed the Leopards at the 6 in the last seconds.

By JOHN KOVACH

Vindicator sports staff

CAMPBELL — The Campbell Memorial High football team is for real this season.

Just ask coach Liberty Jeff Whittaker, whose previously-undefeated Leopards were upended by the upstart Red Devils, 14-6, Friday night on John Knapick Field at Campbell Memorial Stadium.

“[Campbell] played a perfect game and my hat goes off to them. There were no penalties by that team the entire game. They didn’t have one. They played a perfect game,” said Whittaker.

The Leopards (2-1) fell behind 14-0 before rallying in the final period to make a game of it. But they fumbled away a chance to tie the score in the waning seconds at the Red Devils’ 6-yard line, as the Campbell defense rose to the occasion for the fifth time in the game to stop a Leopard scoring bid.

Coach Jeff Bayuk of Campbell (2-1), whose Red Devils beat Liberty for the first time after getting handled the previous two seasons, said his team executed well.

“But I don’t know if we played a perfect game,” he said. “We executed and followed our game plan. We wanted to run the ball as much as possible to wear them down.”

Campbell’s scores came on quarterback Lester Hughes’ 38-yard pass to Chris Copeland in the first quarter and Nick Golec’s 3-yard dash in the third, while Alex Sudacov kicked both extra points.

Hughes was 8-for-16 passing for 103 yards and two interceptions, hitting Alex Lopez four times for 66 yards and Skevo Zembellis and Richard Bledsoe three times each for 34 and 25 yards, respectively.

Liberty didn’t rally until the final quarter when Charles Perdue scored the Leopards’ first TD on a 3-yard run, but Chad Nasci’s placement attempt was blocked by Reggie Ware.

Then late in the game, the Leopards drove to the Campbell 6-yard line with about 1:30 left, and were knocking on the door to tie the game.

But linebacker John Sikora blitzed in to stop a Liberty run up the middle, and the Ware struck again for his second big defensive play of the game when he pounced on a fumble on the sack to thwart the Liberty bid and preserve the win.

“Ware has to be the smallest defensive lineman in the Valley,” said Bayuk. “He is only about 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds soaking wet. But he has the biggest heart. He deserves this. All of our seniors deserve this.”

In fact, Campbell’s defense kept it in the game until Hughes could get his passing attack going. Then later, running back Darrio Bivens began to gain ground as the Leopards’ defense tired. Bivens finished with 57 yards in 13 attempts.

“We felt that if we could make them take long drives that we could reduce their capability,” said Bayuk.

Liberty had four other chances to score, but Campbell’s defense answered the call each time.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” said Whittaker. “Twice we turned the ball over inside the 20 and we had one TD called back [Antonio Kinard’s 38-yard pass interception in the early seconds of the game]. We blew three opportunities.”

kovach@vindy.com